Is city life safer than rural life?

According to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, that answer is a resounding “no.”

"Contrary to popular belief, cities do happen to be the safest place you can live," lead study author Dr. Sage Myers, a pediatrician and researcher at the university, told NBC News.

The study found that death from an injury, including shootings, vehicle accidents, drowning, and falls, is more than 20 percent higher in rural, small towns than larger cities. Homicide rates remain higher in big cities. Read more here.

"As you moved further and further away from cities you got less and less safe. Even going into the suburbs dropped your safety a little bit," Meyers told Reuters.

When it comes to saving lives, proximity can mean the difference between living and dying, and in rural areas, that isn’t always possible.

"In rural areas, it's common that you are seeing transport times of over half hour to an hour to a trauma center," Meyers said, noting that in South Dakota, there are just one or two trauma centers covering the whole state.

While the study failed to explain why injury deaths are more common in rural areas, farming and its inherent dangers likely play a role.

In May, the USDA detailed just how dangerous farming still is today. According to USDA data, there were 42,000 work-related injuries reported in 2009. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2010, 476 farmers and farm workers died as a result of a work-related injury, incurring a fatality rate of 26.1 deaths for 100,000 workers.